February 23, 2011

“Catholic vote turns the tide: Tories reap rewards.”
That’s the bold headline on the front cover of arguably Canada’s leading Roman Catholic newspaper, The Catholic Register.
A long article in the national publication quotes Prime Minister Stephen Harper telling a large Catholic conference in January that his Conservative Party is now the first choice of Canada’s Catholics.
The article goes on to quote Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, a Catholic (right), saying, “The Catholic ... Read More …

by Jules Older in New Zealand
As awful as this damned earthquake is, if it had to happen, at least it happened in a place equipped for it.
When it comes to natural disasters, New Zealand has a number of things going for it that few other places do:
- First, it’s a calm country. No fuss, no histrionics, just get on with it, mate. In an earthquake, calm is a powerful asset.
- Second, ... Read More …

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The story below will appear in Thursday’s West Coast Life in The Vancouver Sun.
Here’s the assignment: leave home, travel to a new city and country, meet two strangers and within a little more than four weeks, create a 25-minute dance work for a paying audience that lives up to your growing international reputation as two young choreographers to watch in contemporary dance today.
That’s what you call a pressure cooker. But it’s exactly ... Read More …

Fan Attic blogger vancouversuneditor writes:
The management and media talk is all about finding an effective fourth line center in the next two games. AV is all about limiting fourth line opportunities in the next two games if last nights game was any indication. Is management and the coaching staff working together or against each other?
If this is Cody Hodgson’s (pictured) opportunity to contribute I’d like to know how it is going to happen ... Read More …

At one point today, before the fear took over, the TSX was trading more than 100 points higher. But by the end of the day, Canada’s main index had been battered down 7 points to 13,956 by uncertainty about how the situation in Libya would play out. Still, surging oil and gold prices made the pain on Bay Street less acute than that felt on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones was down 107 points to 12,106 ... Read More …

As far as culinary warfare goes the Canadian Culinary Championships tests a chef’s stamina. First, the contender must win at the regionals (called Gold Medal Plates Awards) and then it’s on to the nationals, in pitched battles that takes place three times over two days.
Last week-end at the 2011 national Canadian Culinary Championship competition in Kelowna, our man from B.C., Rob Clark, executive chef of C, Raincity Grill and Nu restaurants, took Bronze. ... Read More …

Maybe the problem is that I’m not Hungarian, but the Joy of Cooking goulash recipe is a disaster.
My wife followed the recipe to the letter and the resulting stew was so overpowering we had to mix it in small amounts with bland spaetzle to get it down. Well, my 17-year-old son – the garburator – ate a huge plate, but the rest of us actually taste our food. In terms of using home-grown ingredients, ... Read More …

This year, 215 restaurants in Metro Vancouver participated in Dine Out Vancouver. Voters selected the five top restaurant experiences in each of the categories and ranked them from one to five.
This year, the Dine Out For A Year prize was selected from one of these online voters. And the lucky winner was Pierre Gauthier of Vancouver.
... Read More …

Well the Saturday morning run was spectacular. The Sun was high and warm and everyone who attended was in a great mood. Our session was Walk 1 minute Run 5 minutes seven times with five minutes warm up and cool down and stretching afterwards. We ran up and down the Coquitlam River Trail in a loop. It was the perfect run. Most of the people in my Learn to Run 10K group were a little concerned ... Read More …

With the future of veteran backup quarterback Jarious Jackson up in the air, the B.C. Lions are reaching out for quarterback depth.Last week, the expression of interest was extended to Stefan LeFors, the former Edmonton and Winnipeg quarterback who apparently told head coach and GM Wally Buono he is not interested in coming out of retirement at age 29.This week, discussions centre on 37-year-old Kerry Joseph (above), the CFL’s most outstanding player in ... Read More …

Canada has moved up the ranks, and done so quickly, in becoming a mid-tier country for tax competitiveness, according to a study by the University of Calgary.
While Canada finished in the middle of the 83 developed and developing countries included in the study, this is a vast improvement from six years ago, the study found.
“In 2005, Canada was the fourth highest-taxed jurisdiction in the world. Since then, corporate tax cuts in Canada have ... Read More …

The Middle East may be on fire, but here in the dreamland that is North America and its celebrity-obsessed culture, the news that’s burning up the social media networks is not so much about a deranged Libyan dictator as it is about a couple of haircuts. Two haircuts, in fact, maybe two of the most famous hairstyles — okay, maybe not as iconic as those Beatle moptops or those Farrah feathers — but nevertheless, this week reduced to nothing more than a pile of wispy clippings ... Read More …

Our Mike and Tara Show news anchor John Hadley is one of the smartest people I know. I love asking him questions because he seems to know a little something about most topics and a LOT about everything else. John often tables stories that make a huge difference in our lives. For example: New Canadian research is showing that regular exercise may be the long-sought fountain of youth! OK, you caught my attention with that ... Read More …

When speculators began pushing up the price of crude oil this week over Libyan unrest, the price of gasoline at the pump jumped immediately.
But don’t expect gasoline prices to drop once crude begins to fall.
It’s a phenomenon that Roger McKnight, senior consultant at En-Pro International consulting firm calls “refinery creep.”
“I call it ‘up like a rocket, down like a feather’ because that’s the way the oil companies make their money,” McKnight told ... Read More …

B.C. has withdrawn from the Western and Northern Canadian Protocol (WNCP), which was established in 1993 by the four western provinces and two territories to develop common curriculum. A spokesman for the Education Ministry said the decision to withdraw was made in 2009 for financial reasons but it only became final recently. WNCP costs, which are based on student enrolment, were heavy for B.C. because of its relatively large population — between $200,000 and $300,000 a ... Read More …

[Vancouver’s Dan Bejar brought his act Destroyer to American late night on Tuesday night. Handout]
by Shawn Conner, editor/publisher of Guttersnipe
Are we entering a new weird era of (and for) Canadian music?
I ask this the morning after Vancouver band Destroyer appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and less than two weeks since Arcade Fire won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Somewhere between these events, Arcade Fire ... Read More …

Apple’s new line of MacBook Pro notebook computers launches Thursday but the hoopla is all about the Thunderbolt expected to make its first appearance on an Apple computer.Thunderbolt is the name Apple is reportedly using for a new I/O port that incorporates Intel’s Light Peak interface.Mac4Ever posted an image of the highly anticipated Thunderbolt port on the new 13-inch MacBook Pro.
Like a USB port on steroids, Light Peak is is a speed ... Read More …

The first invitation to Apple’s rumoured iPad 2 event March 2 has surfaced with The Loop confirming its invite arrived Wednesday.
According to The Loop, the event will be held in San Francisco at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, site of previous Apple product announcements.
The arrival of the new iPad has been the subject of much speculation and rumours — since discounted — of a delay. Wannabe iPad buyers who were holding ... Read More …